Pharrell Williams Takes A$AP Rocky, Miguel, and More Inside the Archives at G-Star

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Photo: Courtesy of G-Star

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Walk inside the headquarters of G-Star in Amsterdam and the first thing you’ll notice is a gigantic teepee fashioned from—what else!—raw denim, the fabric on which the Dutch brand was built. It’s inside this spacious indigo blue tent that the company’s new co-owner, Pharrell Williams, is currently holding court. The musician turned fashion impresario has invited a group of his friends—A$AP Rocky, R&B singer Miguel, and more—for a tour of the G-Star archives, home to racks upon racks of rare vintage workwear, military gear, and American sportswear dating back at least half a century. Williams himself is dressed in a custom G-Star jumpsuit that could have been pulled from the vaults of a ’50s mechanic, and the look catches the eye of many of his guests, this writer included. “The jumpsuit loves you,” says Williams when I compliment him on it.

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Photo: Courtesy of G-Star

If jeans could indeed talk, and the walls of the teepee had ears, no doubt Williams’s would have plenty to say. “There are so many memories in your jeans,” he says. “From the punk who writes on them to a merchant [who works in them]. Your denim is your canvas, it’s your photo album.” It’s perhaps why Williams is wary of offering one-size-fits-all fashion advice: “I think people should wear jeans the way that they want, and have their own thing that makes them original . . . I’m not interested in being a part of the camouflage. I’m like a nose; I like sticking out in my own little way.” That is by all accounts an understatement. The winner of last year’s prestigious CFDA Fashion Icon award, Williams has been putting his own singular spin on the American workwear staple for years, from the oversize skater styles of his N.E.R.D days to the natty rockabilly straight-leg cuts he’s recently made his signature.

In the same way, Williams’s personal style has been a barometer of sorts for his evolving musical tastes. “I kind of like how method actors work: They channel a certain personality, imitate it, and even when the camera is off, they still talk with those accents and they kind of dress like that, too,” he says. “So whatever is coming out of me [musically] is how I’m dressing.” Now that the rumors around an upcoming N.E.R.D album have been confirmed, one wonders just how his newly dyed pink buzz cut, rainbow-color grill, and distressed denim ensembles will inform the group’s sound. “This is not the look of a solo album,” he says, laughing.

Much like the imminent new music, it remains to be seen what the look of G-Star will be under Williams. Though the new designs have yet to be revealed, he’s clearly committed to making sustainability a priority; after all, it’s Williams’s work with recycled plastic and Bionic Yarn that initially brought him to the Dutch denim experts in the first place. “We know the work that we’ve done, but it’s not good enough,” he says of Raw for the Oceans, the ethically conscious line he launched in collaboration with G-Star in 2014. “We use 15 to 60 percent of recycled plastic in our denim, and instead of making virgin polyester, which is contributing to the carbon footprint, we’re at least sustaining.”

Wherever Williams ends up taking G-Star next, it’s likely that his vision will be every bit as original and personal as his weatherworn jeans.